Bible Fun For Kids: Life of David: 5. King Saul Offers a Sacrifice

This is lesson 5 in our study in the Life of David. This is a great application for consequences when we disobey God. This is a good lesson for several age groups.

After Saul had been king for two years, he picked 3,000 men; 2,000 men went with Saul and 1,000 went with Jonathan. Saul blew the trumpet, and they attacked the Philistines. Saul called the people together at Gilgal and the Philistines gathered together to fight them. The Philistines had 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and a multitude of people to fight.

When the men of Israel saw all the Philistines, they were worried! They knew they were in danger, and they hid in caves, rocks and holes. Saul was still in Gilgal and the people were scared. He waited for seven days for Samuel to come; but Samuel didn’t show up.

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Saul offered a sacrifice without waiting for Samuel. Samuel had told Saul to wait for him at Gilgal. Saul was tired of waiting and didn’t do what Samuel had told him to do. As soon as he finished the sacrifice, Samuel came. Saul went out to meet him and Samuel asked him “What have you done?” Saul told Samuel that when he saw the people had left, and Samuel didn’t come when he was supposed to, and the Philistines were gathered together, he decided to make a sacrifice to the Lord.

Samuel told Saul he was unwise. He didn’t keep God’s commands. God would have established Saul’s kingdom over Israel forever. However, now his kingdom will not continue. The Lord has looked for a man “after His own heart”. God has commanded him to be the leader over His people. “You have not kept God’s commands!”

Samuel left and Saul had 600 men with him. Jonathan stayed with his people in Gibeah. The Philistines were camped in Michmash. Raiders left the Philistine camp and were divided into three companies. They went different directions (see map).

There wasn’t a blacksmith in the land of Israel. That meant the Israelites had to go to the Philistines to have their animal equipment and weapons sharpened by the Philistines. On the day of the battle, Saul and Jonathan were the only men with weapons.

Jonathan took his armor bearer to the other side where the Philistines garrison was. He didn’t tell Saul where he was going. Jonathan decided to see if God wanted him to fight the Philistines. They showed themselves to the Philistines and the Philistines told Jonathan to “Come to us. We will show you something.” Jonathan told his armor bearer to follow him because God will give them the battle.

Jonathan climbed up on his hands and knees. His armor bearer followed up after him. Jonathan and his armor bearer killed about 20 of the Philistines. There was a rumble, like an earthquake, so Saul had a roll call taken and found out that Jonathan and his armor bearer was missing. Saul and the people that were gathered together went to the Philistine battle. There was so much confusion! So many people fighting and joining in the battle. The Philistines ran from the battle in Michmash. God was with the people and the battle moved to Beth Aven.

Saul continued to fight all his enemies including the Amalekites and the Philistines. There were violent battles against the Philistines during Saul’s whole life.

The printables for David in this series are for an older age group than I usually post. Most of these lessons about David are not appropriate for early elementary. But David is a great study and this lesson is good for an early age group. So, as you can see from the above picture, there is a Q&A. This could be used with younger groups by using the answer sheet and just asking the questions for discussion. Each post in this series will have a maze and some type of puzzle. The additional application has thought questions about how the students can apply the lesson to their daily life. There are answer sheets for all worksheets except for the last application. Everyone will have a different set of answers. Click here to download.